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With our AGM due in the next couple of months, I sat down to prepare the proposed budget & the agenda items.
Lo and behold, in the mail is the booklet for our AGM, the date, the proposed budget and all the agenda.
All done by the Strata Manager without consulting the committee!
The question now is as Secretary, can I simply add items to the agenda at the meeting?
On the face of it, I believe no, but is there wriggle room since the Strata Manager did not consult?
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No you can’t add agenda items to the current notice of meeting, it has been issued.
The question is, did the strata manager have the authority to issue the NOM without consulting the Committee? What does your agreement with the manager say in this regard?
Even if the strata manager does have the power to unilaterally issue the NOM, this is very poor governance, the manager should at the very least consult with the Committee about the items on the agenda, and of course the date of the AGM – the date the manager has selected may not suit people.
The Committee could resolve to withdraw the NOM and then do a new one. I suggest that whatever you do you make it very clear to the manager that they must not issue a notice of meeting without consulting the Committee.
I don’t know the legalities specific to AGMs and agendas but my experience in both business and strata is that one of the first steps in drawing up an agenda for groups such as strata is to request agenda items from stakeholders (those who have an interest). It is certainly the practice our Strata has followed ever since I have been involved.
Even if the agenda was correctly (according to your contract) drawn you can forward items to the Strata Manager to be discussed/voted on and those things have to be discussed at the AGM.
I would suggest that you request that your items be forwarded to the same people as the SM’s original. I can’t imagine on what grounds the SM would be able to deny your request.
You can’t do that Cosmo – you have to issue a new notice of meeting. If david is correct and the meeting is some way off, then there isn’t a problem. I would be telling the strata manager he/she has to meet the costs.
If you have items that you want to have discussed at your AGM, instruct the strata manager to withdraw the notice (at their expense) and reissue when you have an agreed agenda and budget.
The regulations only require meetings to be held every financial year – not on or near the anniversary of the previous one, as was the case before.
If there isn’t anything you want discussed that isn’t on the agenda, let this one go through to the keeper but with a stern written warning to the strata manager not to do this again.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Every strata manager in every state/territory in which I have been a strata owner has been given the right to run most of the OC/BC functions. This includes some of the largest strata management firms in Australia. It is a delegation of authority usually done at each AGM.
Included in that delegation of authority is the authority to call and conduct AGMs.
Even as an OC chair I’ve rarely been consulted by a SM about the AGM except for perhaps setting the date and location.
To be honest I don’t think it’s so important. An active strata committee has very many other options in the general running of an OC/BC.
@Austman said:
To be honest I don’t think it’s so important. An active strata committee has very many other options in the general running of an OC/BC.I couldn’t disagree more.
I accept that strata managers have those delegated rights in most contracts, confirmed at their AGMs, but that is really to make sure the OCs where owners don’t care, don’t understand or can’t be bothered, can continue to function. Those delegated powers can be removed at any time by a decision of the committee and that’s how it should be.
Committees are part of the community and they should be setting the agenda – even if it’s just by telling the strata manager to add an item before it goes out. Important issues like by-laws and the transfer of common property, not to mention major renovations, and legal action require motions to be put on a general meeting agenda.
If the strata manager is just going ahead and setting the agenda and the budget without consultation with the committee how can a building change for the better?
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@JimmyT said:I couldn’t disagree more.
…If the strata manager is just going ahead and setting the agenda and the budget without consultation with the committee how can a building change for the better?
Basically because, at least in Victoria, AGMs don’t much matter anymore.
I’ve been to hundreds of them and they are mostly just formalities except for “other business”. Most owners don’t even bother attending. I’ve never yet been to one that has achieved a quorum (in nearly 40 years). I’ve been to several where it was just me and the strata manager. The budget is usually just a projection based on the past year’s expenses.
According to my SMs (some of the biggest in Australia), it’s only when there’s a major financial decision on the AGM agenda that attendance numbers swell.
IME it’s the rest of the year that really matters. And that’s where active strata committees make a huge difference. They handle problems and issues as they occur and get things done for the benefit of the owners and occupiers. My committees actively engage on important issues with owners and occupiers throughout the year. Why wait to the AGM to inform them? IMO the AGM is becoming a bit of a nuisance. But at least it does give owners a chance to present GM motions for free. And to turn up to meet fellow owners. And to optionally elect a new committee (in Victoria that does not need to be done). And to of course set a budget. My committees often have to undo that budget later in the year anyway.
All my SMs allow changes to their AGM agenda by any owner who wants to add to the agenda. But they do have to be quick about it.
To note that in Victoria, around 25% of the population live in OCs (source: SCA). But the average OC size is 8.44 lots (source: SCA). So most strata occupiers are not living in large strata schemes. Sometimes I think too much attention is paid to issues for larger strata schemes when most people are in fact living in smaller strata schemes. Being a committee member in both I do see a difference in how the scheme/committee/manager functions even if it is under the same law.
@Austman said:
Basically because, at least in Victoria, AGMs don’t much matter anymore.I’ve been to hundreds of them and they are mostly just formalities except for “other business”.
There’s no “other business” allowed at NSW general meetings. If it’s not on the agenda, it shouldn’t be discussed and certainly can’t be voted on.
Most owners don’t even bother attending. I’ve never yet been to one that has achieved a quorum (in nearly 40 years). I’ve been to several where it was just me and the strata manager. The budget is usually just a projection based on the past year’s expenses.
At the risk of sounding flippant, why would people attend when they are totally excluded from the decision-making process? Seriously, there’s a correlation to be made between lack of engagement and lack of attendance.
Reading the rest of your post, I think it’s fair to say that the system in Victoria is totally and fundamentally different from NSW and so it’s probably unwise to project what works in one state on to the other.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@JimmyT said:There’s no “other business” allowed at NSW general meetings. If it’s not on the agenda, it shouldn’t be discussed and certainly can’t be voted on.
It’s allowed, certainly not only in Victoria. There can’t be a motion/vote on it. But it probably was once one of the most important parts of the AGM. It’s where owners used to raise and discus issues that they thought important.
For me, as an OC chair and committee member of multiple OCs, it’s largely now been replaced by anytime email.
@JimmyT said:
Reading the rest of your post, I think it’s fair to say that the system in Victoria is totally and fundamentally different from NSW and so it’s probably unwise to project what works in one state on to the other.Although it has many differences, I would not agree that the system in Victoria is “totally and fundamentally different from NSW”.
I think AGMs are still important. It’s when the committee is elected. They seem to be more important in larger OC/BCs.
I don’t want to get into get into a war of words over this but your insistence that your personal experience of being chair of several schemes is a guide to what happens everywhere is well off the mark.
I’m not disputing that committees make a lot of important decisions but there is a very strict limit in NSW (and elsewhere) on the kind of decisions they make (as there should be).
If an important decision that I didn’t agree with was made under “any other business” at an AGM in NSW I would challenge it all the way to NCAT and I would win because it would have been in clear breach of regulations.
If I was in a building where the SM set the agenda and budget without consulting the committee, I would have them removed at the first opportunity.
And of course people feel excluded if they aren’t consulted. Expecting people to turn up for a meeting when no one has bothered to ask them if they have any issues that they want to have discussed is pretty much guaranteed to keep them away in droves.
You may have as many discussions as you wish under “general” business but if you make any decisions based on items that are not specified in the agenda, in most states – and I include Victoria – you leave yourself wide open to a legal challenge by a disgruntled owner.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I just want to add in Austman’s defence, there are plenty of strata schemes – and possibly the majority of smaller ones – that a) just allow the strata manager to get on with it and b) do make decisions on an informal “any other business” basis.
They can do this because nobody is particularly bothered and it works until someone is.
In any case, my points were based on the original poster’s comments where they are taking over a strata committee that had been neglected and wanted to do things properly.
In that kind of situation, I would say the more you can play by the book, the better.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@JimmyT said:If I was in a building where the SM set the agenda and budget without consulting the committee, I would have them removed at the first opportunity.
In reality it happens.
It’s pretty much what all of my SMs have done in NSW, ACT and VIC since 1979. I don’t necessarily agree with it but IME it’s what they do. A routine, generic type of agenda. But as I also mentioned, my current SMs will change the AGM agenda if you are quick to request it.
The main point I wanted to make is that good committees can make a huge difference (as the OP seems to have noted). And many or most matters need not wait until a GM.
I wonder what the OP’s matters actually were? And if they even needed a GM authority? Fair enough if they did.
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